Why is Sonos Web so Terrible?

The web app has only been out for about a year and it works for my needs. But I mainly use the Mac app to control my system. This has not changed much in all the years I have had Sonos in my home. I also suggest using the Mac app as ​@Rhonny has done.

If your speakers are still disconnecting from the app, make sure you are following the guidelines presented by Sonos. My first speaker was the ZonePlayer S5, which is now the Play 5 gen 1. The only time I have had connection issues is when I used a powerline adapter to connect a speaker to my network.

Setting static IPs for all speakers, is also a great idea.

“Only been out for about a year”.

You would think a web app, for a premium, once great product. that’s been out for a whole year wouldn’t suck, but it does and this exemplifies the sad state of Sonos.  Thankfully as pointed out they haven’t enshitified the old desktop, yet. 

As a long time software developer I can assure you that a "manager with a vision" can do an unbelievable amount of damage and burn the bridges to recovery in just a few months.

Let them loose to also hire and fire long time support and developers and the damage becomes permanent with no route to recovery,  just chasing rats down holes and hoping to hold on to whatever functionality remains until the new folks learn enough to make real progress rather than flailing madly at the latest dumpster fire.

Been there, done that and walked away to a new job when the screaming got too aggravating.

And, to boot, I’d expect much of the programming focus has been on getting the mobile apps back to parity, rather than focusing on the less used Web client.

Not saying that’s what should have happened, just recognizing there are limits to available resources.

I disagree that the web client is “less used.” Where did that data come from?

I would argue the web client may be very commonly used. Particularly by users like me who are on their desktop for many hours each day and like to have Sonos playing in the background. Why would I want to have to go to a mobile device to control the music when I have my desktop open and active? Sonos’s web client should be equally robust to its mobile clients, in my opinion.

Sorry, I should have included a disclaimer. I assume it is less used, to my knowledge Sonos doesn’t share use statistics. Perhaps I was basing my response on the number of various posts in this forum, which seemingly are heavily biased towards the mobile app…which doesn’t mean anything in terms of percentage of use. 

I certainly agree that the web app should be equally robust, as all apps should be equal. Ideally, they should, I’d think, use the same codebase, within reason. However, given that it is the most recently released, and was released at the same time as the version 80 S2 app which has been roundly condemned by the majority of posters in this forum, and given that Sonos has seemingly shrunk the numbers of employees, I do wonder how many disparate teams there can be dedicated to each app. Hopefully, they can re-dedicate themselves to making all apps equal. 

For what it is worth, when sitting at my Mac, I use the desktop app to control my Sonos. Sonos has stated that they won’t retire the desktop apps, both Mac and Windows, in favor of the web app until the web app reaches full parity. Which hasn’t yet happened, to my knowledge. 

You don’t need data to know the web client is less used. I’m here most days and no-one ever talks about it. If people are on a PC or Mac, they are using the Windows or Mac app. As should you.

You really don’t need the web client at this stage - it’s not great yet.  I’m surprised that having been advised to install the desktop app, you’re still talking about the way you listen to music at your computer as if the desktop app doesn’t exist. I even gave you the link.

Agree, but volume control on the Mac app is rubbish. Step amount is too high (so it's hard to fine tune). On the web app, you can use the keyboard to move between grouped rooms using the tab key and make small adjustments by pressing the right and left cursor keys. Volume levels are also numbered, which they are not on the Mac app. You can do the same on an iPad with a connected keyboard. It is extremely useful. 

So I've been using a combination of web app and mobile/ Mac apps. Until now anyway, as, for me at least, grouping on the web app has become unreliable. Conversely, grouping on the mobile and Mac apps have improved. There is probably a cause and effect thing going on there. So, more reliable Mac and mobile apps and worse web app seems to be the way we are heading. On balance, probably a good thing. But I miss that fine tuning volume control on my Mac.

Try my new Mac app, released yesterday. (See profile for link).

It’s interesting that Spotify continues to update/improve their Mac app, even though that have a web one. I was told this week that the Mac Sonos app is in “maintenance mode” and that I should start using the web app, since that’s being updated etc.  I appreciate the “parity” framing, but I highly doubt that can be achieved.

Ah well, ‘maintenance mode’ makes sense in terms of performance. The Mac app has never been my favourite controller, but at least it has previously been mostly reliable. Lately, I’ve had several occurrences of it thinking my firewall is blocking it (it wasn’t) or that the app needed updating (it didn’t). 

Android and iOS have been quite good though of late, so I’ve mostly been using those. As for the Web App - temperamental at best - it isn’t really a viable alternative. I do like the volume control on the web app though and that you can fully control using the keyboard, tabbing between speakers in a group.

Overall experience for me is pretty good, but performance comes in peaks and troughs. Just when you think you’ve got a perfect solution, that controller starts to have issues, but another one improves.

I’m used to having to change my preferred controller regularly. Really shouldn’t have to, but I’m prepared to do it for the quality of the music and all the features.

To be true the web app works much better for me than the native app on the iPhone, much more responsive and give me much less error messages!